Rheumatic Diseases in the Elderly: Assessing Chronic Pain

This article discusses the assessment of chronic pain in older patients. First, the epidemiology and impact of chronic pain in the elderly are addressed. Next, common barriers to pain assessment are reviewed. An effective approach to pain assessment in the older patient is described, including the important pearls of history-taking and the physical examination, as well as recommendations for the evaluation of functional status and psychosocial well-being. The article concludes with a review of multidimensional and unidimensional pain assessment tools, and a discussion of methods for pain assessment in the cognitively impaired.